GUILDERLAND — This spread-out suburb, where Crossgates Mall and the automobile are king, is set to be the home of a large "town center" designed to break the mold of Capital Region development patterns.

Town officials have given final approval to a project called GlassWorks Village, which calls for 300 condominiums, townhouses and single-family homes built in proximity to 190,000 square feet of stores and offices. GlassWorks, planned for a site along Western Avenue, is touted as a dense, pedestrian-friendly hamlet that will recreate the best of an old-fashioned town in one fell swoop.

The project by the Platform Cos., a Colonie firm, is expected to cost at least $100 million and take five to 10 years to build. Construction could begin next year if financing is secured.

"It's nice to clear this last big hurdle," Daniel O'Brien, Platform's president, said of the town approval, which came Wednesday during a planning board meeting.

For about 60 years, development in Capital Region suburbs, like suburbs everywhere, has placed stores and offices far from apartment and houses. Critics of the pattern, which is often enforced by zoning laws, say it has created towns where living without a car is difficult and a long drive is needed for even basic errands.

Some developers are rejecting the pattern in favor of a philosophy dubbed "new urbanism," which mixes stores, offices and homes together. Those developers say an aging population that will need to walk more and rising gas prices that will discourage driving, along with dissatisfaction with postwar suburbs, will fuel demand for a new way of building and living.

But, of course, it isn't really new: Cities like Albany and Schenectady offer walkable environments, as do older towns and villages, like Ballston Spa. But those environments were built decades ago.

New urbanist projects have popped up around the country, but the trend has not taken hold in Capital Region suburbs — making GlassWorks Village a potential trailblazer.

"It's a good project for the town," said Guilderland planner Jan Weston. "It will become the new center for the town."

Guilderland, of course, is in many ways the prototypical postwar suburb, home to shopping plazas that lured city shoppers and single-family homes that gave apartment dwellers a garage and yard.

In other parts of the country, towns like Guilderland have strongly opposed new urbanist projects, as density and urbanism isn't what drew most folks to the suburbs in the first place. But Weston says Guilderland officials have been supportive of GlassWorks Village from the start, as were many town residents.

"We had less public opposition to this than we've had sometimes for two-lot subdivisions," she said.

GlassWorks is planned for 57 acres along Western Avenue, mostly to the east of Winding Brook Drive and just west of Route 155. The back side of the project extends to a housing development along Chancellor Drive.

New urbanist developments are sometimes criticized as islands of dense construction with few connections to surrounding towns. But O'Brien notes that GlassWorks is designed to connect to both the Guilderland Public Library and a YMCA and would be within walking distance of a Price Chopper.

O'Brien said Platform has been in talks but hasn't yet attempted to secure the financing needed to build GlassWorks. He believes the company will not struggle to do so. Financiers have been supportive, he said.

O'Brien said GlassWorks, when built, will include mostly small-scale retailers, including national chains. And while most suburban housing developments target a narrow income range, GlassWorks will be different, he said.

Home prices will range from $200,000 to $400,000, and O'Brien envisions young professionals in lofts living near empty-nesters in condos.

"We're looking to attract a diverse group," he said.

Chris Churchill can be reached at 454-5442 or by e-mail at cchurchill@timesunion.com.